There is a motor drive apparatus that uses an inverter module including switching elements (for example, see Patent Literature 1), in which a high withstand voltage diode is additionally connected between a power supply terminal of a gate drive circuit and a drive power supply in order to prevent a breakdown of a peripheral circuit (a control power supply circuit or a control circuit such as a microcomputer) caused by a surge voltage generated at the time of switching of the switching elements used in the inverter module.
There is an inverter module capable of driving a three-phase motor (for example, see Patent Literature 2) including switching elements for upper and lower arms, and an upper arm gate drive circuit and a lower arm gate drive circuit, which drive these switching elements, and including low potential power supply terminals (NU, NV, NW) connected to the switching elements for the lower arm, and a low potential power supply terminal (VNC) for driving lower arm gates, connected to the lower arm gate drive circuit.
Moreover, there is a power converter (for example, see Patent Literature 3) including inverter modules each allocated to a U phase, a V phase, and a W phase to drive switching elements set in each inverter module by use of a common drive signal.